2018 International Seminar on Intelligent Technology and Its Applications (ISITIA)
Nutrient Film Technique based Hydroponic System
Using Fuzzy Logic Control
Siti Mashumah Muhammad Rivai
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya, Indonesia Surabaya, Indonesia
sitimashumah2622@gmail.com muhammad_rivai@ee.its.ac.id
Abstract— Vegetables are nutrients that are needed by the human
body. The Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) based Hydroponic
system is typically used to produce vegetables on small farms that
can accelerate the harvest time with high-quality products. One of
the most important parameters in hydroponics is the providing of
appropriate amounts of nutrients based on the age of the plant. In
this study, the NFT-based hydroponic system has been designed by
using fuzzy logic control. The set point value of Electrical
Conductivity (EC) of the nutrient solution is predicted by image
processing of HSV Histogram of the pakcoy mustard plant. The
result of the experiment showed that the fuzzy logic control has
been able to provide nutrients in accordance with the age of the
plant with an error rate of 8.9%.
Keywords— Electrical conductivity, Fuzzy logic control, HSV
Histogram, Hydroponic system
I. INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is a very important sector in Indonesia. The
population has changed drastically in recent years. According
to the FAO, the world population is predicted to grow by
about 10 billion in the year of 2050. This trend-along with
other factors such as climate change where agriculture
accounts for 13.5% of global emissions, and the loss of fertile
land makes it necessary to find more efficient methods for
agriculture without affecting the environment [1].
Agricultural land tends to decrease, while food demand
including vegetables is increasing. This encourages the
agricultural sector to improve the implementation of
agricultural systems with small land. Hydroponic is an
agricultural cultivation with a relatively small portion of land
[2]. This cultivation technique uses nutrient solutions and
oxygen that flow into the plant in lieu of the soil [3], [4].
Hydroponic can be worked out all the year regardless of the
season. Therefore, the selling price of the harvest remains
high. Maintenance of hydroponic cultivation can be done more
easily because the place of cultivation is clean enough,
moreover pest and disease attacks are relatively small.
Therefore, these agricultural products are higher and healthier.
Several studies on hydroponics have been conducted, one of
which is the automatic control of electrical conductivity and
PH using fuzzy logic [5].
One type of hydroponic is the Nutrient Film Technique
(NFT). This type of hydroponic uses a nutritional solution to
irrigate to the root area of the plant directly. This nutrient
solution is essential for successful hydroponic cultivation [6].
In NFT-hydroponic, a thin layer of 1-3 mm of solution is
pumped and flowed into the roots of plants continuously. The
circulation of this nutrient solution can be used continuously
for several days according to the needs of the plant [7].
978-1-5386-7654-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Astria Nur Irfansyah
Department of Electrical Engineering
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya, Indonesia
irfansyah@ee.its.ac.id
Image processing is a way to convert image using particular
techniques. One method of the image processing is HSV (Hue,
Saturation, Value) histogram. The HSV is a color derived from
RGB that shows good performance against changes in the light
intensity at outdoor [8]. In this study, the Saturation value of
the image is used to determine the age of the plant in providing
the EC setpoint.
One important factor in hydroponics is the maintaining of
Electrical Conductivity (EC) in nutrient solution absorbed by
plants. This EC value will give an indication of the nutrients
contained in solution [9]. This EC measurement aims to find
out how much concentration of nutrients absorbed by plants. A
high level of EC will result in plants not being able to absorb
nutrients well. Maintaining the EC value is an important factor
for plant growth to remain healthy [10], [11]. Monitoring the
volume of the solution plays an important role in order the
plant roots always get the appropriate concentration of
nutrients.
The nutrient requirement of plants will be different types
and levels according to the age of the plant. Plant growth can
be categorized as seed, vegetative and generative phases. In
this study, the EC value and depth of water are regulated by a
fuzzy logic controller to obtain the length of the opening of the
nutrient and water valves that needs to be added based on the
age of plant growth.
II. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
The experiments are performed on mini hydroponic with a
size of 30cm x 7cm x 30cm to measure the performance of EC
meter, distance sensor, and camera optimally, as shown in
Figure 1. This hydroponics system is located in areas exposed
to sunlight. For the pakcoy plants, the EC nutrient values are
divided into three growth phases including the seeds with EC
value of 1mS/cm, vegetative (10-20 days) of 2.7mS/cm, and
the generative (21-40 days) of 3.5mS/cm.
The image of the hydroponic plant leafs is captured by
Webcam Logitech B525 camera. The RGB value of the image
is then converted to HSV level. HSV color has three main
characteristics, namely Hue which states the original color,
Saturation shows the color strength, and Value indicates the
color brightness. The conversion formula of RGB to HSV
values is as follows:
 3(G − B )  (1)
H = tan  
 ( R − G ) + ( R − B ) 
min(R, G, B ) (2)
S = 1−
V
387
 R +G + B (3)
V=
3

Currently, the digital image processing is widely implemented

in agriculture fields [12], [13]. The histogram-based feature
extraction has been successfully used in digital image
processing for many years [14]. In this study, the HSV
histogram is conducted to predict the age of the plant in order
to provide nutrients that meet their growth needs.
The analog Electrical Conductivity sensor SKU: DFR0300 (a)
is used to measure the concentration of the hydroponic nutrient
solution. This device consists of EC sensor with the measuring
range of 1-20 mS/cm and temperature sensor with a range of
5-40°C. The ultrasonic distance sensor HC-SR04 is used to
measure the volume of nutrient solution. An ultrasonic wave is
generated by piezoelectric devices with a frequency of 40 kHz.
The fuzzy logic control is applied to maintain the desired EC
value. The overall system design is shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 2 shows the block diagram of a hydroponic system
(b)
using a fuzzy logic control. The fuzzy logic controller has two
input variables including EC Error and the water volume (V) Fig. 3. The fuzzy input membership function: (a) EC Error, and (b) water
expressed as: volume.

EC Error = Setpo int − EC Sensor (4)

V = A*h (5)

where A and h are the area and depth of the water,

respectively. This parameter is expressed in a fuzzy set with a
triangular curve shape formulated with:

 0, x<a (6)
 x − a
µ [x ] =  ,a ≤ x ≤ c
 c
 b − x Fig. 4. The fuzzy output membership function: (-) nutrient valves, and (+)
,
 c c < x ≤ b water valve with adjustable weights.

TABLE I. THE FUZZY RULES OF THE CONTROL SYSTEM.

Vol
Empty Medium Full
EEC
Short Medium Long
Negative
Nutrient Nutrient Nutrient
Zero Zero Zero Zero
Medium Short
Positive Long Water
Water Water

Fig. 3 shows the input membership function of fuzzy logic

Fig. 1. The hydroponic system design.
including the EC Error and the water depth representing its
volume. The output membership function of the fuzzy logic is
shown in the Fig. 4. The mark (-) indicates the activated valves
of nutrients, and (+) for a water valve with an adjustable
aperture. The inference system uses the Sugeno method with
the rule table shown in Table I. The defuzzification process
uses the centroid method [15], [16].

III. RESULT

The hydroponic system used for this experiment is shown

Fig. 2. The block diagram of the hydroponic system. in Fig. 5. The first experiment is an image processing using the
HSV Histogram method for various plant ages. The result of
Hue histogram is shown in Fig. 6. Meanwhile, the center of

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HSV histogram values to various plant ages are shown in Fig.
7. The Saturation value has a high level of linearity to the
others with the coefficient of determination R2 of 0.97.
Therefore, the Saturation value is used to determine the set
point of EC value for the controlled system.
The second experiments perform calibration of the
ultrasonic distance and EC sensors. Fig. 8 shows the response
of the ultrasonic distance sensor to the depth representing the
volume of water with the error rate of 15.6%. The EC sensor
response has a linear relationship to the nutrient concentration
in 500 mL of water shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 8. The ultrasonic distance sensor response to the depth represents the
volume of water.
The third experiment is the overall measurement of the
controlled system. Figure 10 (a) shows the system response to
the 2-day plant age which gives the EC set point of 2.7.
Because the system has a low EC value, then the fuzzy logic
control provides the decision to increase the length of the
nutrient valve.

Fig. 9. The EC sensor response to nutrient concentration in 500mL of water.

Fig. 5. The experimental photo setup

(a)

Fig. 6. The histogram of pakcoy mustard plant.

(b)

(c)
Fig. 10. The results of the hydroponic system using Fuzzy logic control for
the plant age of (a) 2-days, (b) 10-days, and (c) 30-days.
Fig. 7. The center of HSV histogram to various plant ages

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